A Hungarian New Year's Eve

For the whole story about my Christmas break, check here.

This year, I was in Budapest for New Year's Eve!  Given that most of my New Years have been in Michigan with my family in Mt. Clemens for fireworks, being in the capital of a European country was incredible.  The city was full of energy and excitement!

After a day of sightseeing, Anna and I met up with some fellow Fulbrighters for the evening festivities.  A while back, Michael (a Bulgarian Fulbrighter) mentioned that he was going to be in Budapest for NYE.  So we decided to meet up.  Unfortunately, he didn't have a working phone and neither of us had continuous wifi coverage so at first I figured we wouldn't actually find each other.  However, on the steps of St. Stephen's we did meet and he brought along some friends, two Peace Corp volunteers from Bulgaria and a German Fulbrighter.

Time for some mulled wine!

We wandered the streets of Budapest for about half an hour looking for dinner.  At first, we thought we were going to have to eat Subway or Chinese food because we couldn't find a reasonably priced Hungarian restaurant.  Buuut, around the last corner, we found the perfect place.  I had a goulash crepe and a delicious strawberry beer.

After dinner, everyone went back to my hostel because we have a bar in the first floor.  It was only 9:30 pm and waaaaaaay too cold to stay outside until midnight.  So we all bought a beer and hung out for about two hours.

During this time, I met a very strange Australian.  He explained how much he hated America and that he hoped we would be bombed.  All this hatred stems from being stopped by U.S. Customs in 2002 (a few months after 9-11) with insulin needles in his carry on.  Yes, he was only 11 years old...but it was right after the biggest terrorist attack on American soil.  I didn't have much sympathy.  THEN I realized how drunk the poor chap was because he then tried to explain how bombs could explode in the U.S. without anyone dying.  It was quite the start to my NYE festivities.

I think maybe they played the Hungarian anthem

Closer to midnight, we took to the streets of Budapest!  There was an outdoor concert set up not too far from the hostel so we walked over there to ring in the new year.  On the way over, I had a hankering for mulled wine and Michael had the stupendous idea of buying a bottle of champagne from a street vendor.   Problem with that, was out of the six of us, no one had opened a bottle of champagne before!

As midnight rolled around, I was given the honors of figuring out the champagne after the clock struck midnight.   So my first activity of 2013 was trying not to blow someone's eye out!  We hung out in the square and joined in a little bit of dancing with random strangers.  Then the Bulgarian Peace Corps volunteer taught some Bulgarian circle dance.  When everyone found out Anna and I knew how to Polish dance...they made us do a little performance.

I'm SUPER excited to see what 2013 brings around.

Happy New Year from Anna and me!!